Sunday, March 31, 2013

I
was watching a cable show on money the other night, which explained that
only two elements on the big table could be used for money
(before paper money) -- silver and gold -- based on scarcity and
inherent attractiveness (the more attractive conveniently being the scarcer).

Which leads to two questions. What kind of markets -- local or
world-wide -- would have been possible over the millennia if silver and gold had never existed? And, did
God do a "sneaky" when he made silver and gold (such natural "noble" metals) to make early economic life much more possible?

PS. Supposing silver and gold had never existed, how would advocates of returning to the gold standard imagine the modern world would somehow make do? :-)

Sunday, March 17, 2013

First, clear everybody
out of the new
courthouse and put
them back in the not so old two
courthouses (the newest old opened in
1977!). With crime down 75% before the new one opened for business there
must be ample room for all functions in
the not so old two.Then
open up the brand new one
-- I would
style it "Mad Mayor Bloomberg's
Courthouse"
-- for
viewing in the public
areas for $5 for the
day or something.
Could put in a
restaurant and souvenir
area, etc.
More
money could get you a
guided tour through the
non-pubic areas.
We could advertise
it on other
continents as a
tourist attraction.
Sure, we
are not talking
of the Statue
of Liberty --
but it would
be sort of a
government
waste wonder
of the world.
Tours through
the entire
building could
take half a
day -- empty
area, after
empty area,
after
completely
wasted empty
area.Even
if we did not
pick up that
many millions in
tourist
money ($400
millions
is a lot to
make
up!),
the exhibition
could save the
city millions
every year by
inspiration
not to repeat
the mistake
over and over
in smaller
ways --
could potentially
save the country
billions a
year by the
same example.Could
not do it with
the $670
million dollar
new courthouse
in Brooklyn --
which I
assume is an
equal
story of
waste; but
I'm from the Bronx.
Same opening
after crime
went down 75%
but it doesn't
look like the
first building
site
erected
by Martians
when they
landed -- all
glass and
flying saucer
jury selection
space to
boot.
As a matter of
fact
the Brooklyn
boondoggle looks
like an
very expanded
version of the
older,
landmark
courthouse up
on the
Grand
Concourse --
so it seems
the landmark could
not be
too outmoded.Just
an idea.http://www.nycourts.gov/publications/benchmarks/issue5/mega-courthouse.shtml

Friday, March 15, 2013

Of course the "American way" of dealing with this TSA rule would be for
everybody to carry a knife on a plane. Just kidding. The first time a
terrorist -- or just a lunatic (nah; none of them around) -- puts a
knife to a stewardess' throat and insists on diverting to Cuba or just
staying in the air long enough for the gas to get dangerously low, the
ruling will be rectified. May not take long.

Come to think of it -- and the crazies will -- if you get four well
trained (Seal like) middle eastern terrorists or our own right wing
militia nuts (think Timothy McVeigh) who want to make a name for
themselves, they could go through a smaller airliner (80 people) in a
tight ball and kill every passenger on the plane one at a time. The
wouldn't crash the plane but it would be a flying coffin. Just the type
of obscene scene that keeps these types up dreaming nights (may be
working on it already).

Saturday, March 2, 2013

"Right
now, given reasonable estimates of likely future growth and inflation,
we would have a stable or declining ratio of debt to G.D.P. even if we
had a $400 billion deficit." ***"If you do the math, it seems likely that full economic recovery would raise revenue by at least $450 billion."***"A reasonable estimate is that economic recovery would reduce federal spending on such programs by at least $150 billion." ***"Which brings us back to ONE TRILLION DOLLARS."******

About Me

In 1944 I arrived on earth (if from somewhere else in the universe, those memories have been erased for security reasons).
For more: http://ontodayspagelinks.blogspot.com/2008/09/my-more-complete-profile.html